The cult to the celestial ox between the Nama

The Nama, they separated of the Bai approximately seven centuries ago. They think that all the things have his soul, and practise a cult to the nature similar to the one that the Bai were practising in the past. Since on having lived in a big isolation, they preserve traditions already eliminated between the Bai.

One of the most interesting cults of the Nama is the cult to the celestial ox, to which it is considered to be capable of preparing the disasters, of protecting the safety of the village, the peace with the neighbors, the prosperity of the cultivation and of of the cattle.

They think that the ox is an intermediary between the men and the god of the sky. And they realize a ritual sacrifice so that the ox rises to the sky to take his requests to the god.

These ceremonies are in the center of the spiritual life of the Nama, as well as of his social life. Since the day that celebrates the sacrifice of the ox of the sky, all take part in a festive ambience, from which nobody remains excluded. The elders remembering the ancient times, the women preparing the meal, the young people competing for realizing the sacrifice, the children observing everything and playing between averages. Also it is the central point in the spiritual life of the Nama, which believe that not only the oxen, but many other phenomena of the nature, have their own god. And there, in the middle of all of them, the man is. For the Nama, when a person dies, his body dies, but not his soul, that remains just as when the person was alive.

In the sacrifice presided by a shaman or priest, it informs the whole village. It usually celebrate in the sixth month when they begin preparing the works of the field. There is bought a yellow ox that after the suitable ceremonies turns into a celestial ox. For some days he enjoys important privileges, like moving at large eating what he wants, although it is of the sown fields of the people, without nobody bothering him I do not even beating him. If some child, without understanding his sacred character beats him, the people of his house take him before the ox where it expresses his fault and is punished, offering a gift to the ox.

The day of the sacrifice, in the morning every family takes wine, rice and vegetables to the square of the celestial ox. The priests hang of his horns a red cloth that is supposed it will show him the way, and they take him to the square, where four young people ties his paws. While the shaman burns incense and says his prayers, the young people ties the ox to a branch killing him of a stab in the neck. Then the shaman says: "Do not be afraid, it is not that let's want your life, the fact is that the god of the sky wants that you rise to inform him. This is the plan of the god, that we do not dare to disobey. It sees of the sky. When you should come I gave to the god good things about us. Help us in our matters and ask the god of the sky to protect our cultivation, our cattle and the harmony and the peace of the village."

Then it is skinned to the ox and the shaman is rewarded with the skin, the head and the entrails. The rest is distributed between the families. In the same square the people meet doing fires where he roasts his meat, and even the people who does not usually eat ox meat, this time will eat it because it is the meat of the celestial ox.

In the XVIIIth century, with the arrival of the cults typical Benzhu of the Bai to this region, both cults melted, and in some villages, on having constructed him the first temples of the masters of the ground (Benzhu), it was included in them to the ox of the sky, often like principal cult object. In other occasions, the new cult substituted that of the celestial ox. Other times, the economic pressure that supposed the sacrifice of the ox did that the cult to the ox of the sky was transforming into the cult the glutton of the sky. In that the pig was assuming all the responsibilities that like celestial intermediary, previously the ox had assumed.

The expense was not also very big, since these sacrifices were celebrated once a year in the villages with many population, and once every two or three years, in those of minor.

One believes that these ceremonies might have a few important therapeutic effects. First of all because the feeding of these peoples, hunters and with a very limited agriculture, it was generally deficient. Therefore, on having sacrificed an ox and having distributed his meat between the people, an important proteins ingestion was provided to every person. Secondly there is the effect that the proper holiday, with his religious aspect it can have on the believers, suggestive effects so important that in medicine placebo is already known like effect.

There is not doubt that a psychological catharsis accompanied by an extra consumption of proteins, especially between peoples that usually consume them scantly, must have a few good effects.

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